Quest for the Missing Horcruxes
by AZScorpions24
Summary: What if Harry has had the power to find the Horcruxes all along, and not known it?
1. Chapter 1

The usual disclaimer applies here. I don't own Harry Potter, although I'd love to. Having more money than the royal family of England after writing four books is a hell of an accomplishment.

Quest for the Missing Horcruxes 

**By Scott Jewett**

Despite the fact that Harry Potter had just lost one of the most important people in his life, and the fact that he was forgoing his last year of school in order to go on what might have been the most difficult quest of all time, he was sleeping surprisingly well.

Not only that, he was dreaming of Quidditch. It was a match against Slytherin, and he had just spotted the Snitch, floating just over the center hoop on the far side of the pitch. Checking to see that Malfoy didn't see it, Harry was off like a shot, a red and gold blur on his Firebolt. He stretched his hand out as he got closer…closer…

"Harry."

Harry stopped dead, much to his surprise. Where had that voice come from?

"Harry, I must speak with you."

It was Dumbledore. There was no doubt about it. But he was dead. He wasn't even in the teachers' box. Harry turned his head to check, just as Draco Malfoy zoomed past him and grabbed the Snitch.

The stands erupted in cheering-mostly on the Slytherin side. Harry stared in shock.

"Harry."

Harry turned his head in the direction of his voice, and nearly fell off his broom. There was Albus Dumbledore, standing right next to him. No small feat, considering he was fifty feet off the ground.

"I'm afraid this dream, entertaining as it is, will have to wait, Harry. There are more important things to discuss."

And just like that, Harry and Dumbledore were in his office. Harry looked around in shock.

"So I'm dreaming. That makes sense. That would be the only way Malfoy could beat me at Quidditch."

Dumbledore chuckled. "I agree, Harry. I'm sure Mr. Malfoy has dreams of that type more often than you do. However, as I said before, there are more important things to talk about."

"Professor?" Harry asked. "Am I dreaming this myself? Or is this your doing?" Dumbledore smiled.

"Harry, I certainly had no wish to die. Especially since Voldemort is powerful again. But when we went to find the Horcrux, I assumed there was powerful magic protecting it…magic, perhaps, that even I couldn't handle. I further assumed that our adventure could result in my being seriously injured, or even killed. So I invoked this particular magic. It's very old, and very powerful. It allows me to be here long enough to give you one last bit of advice before I pass on completely."

"What is it, sir? Is it about the Horcruxes? Do you know where they are now?"

"No, Harry. I'm afraid I don't. I think, however, that you might."

Harry thought for a few seconds, trying to make sense of that.

"I don't think so, sir. I mean, I don't even know what they all are, much less how to find them…except for Nagini."

"I think you might, Harry. Do you recall the conversation we had at the end of last year? I'm sure you remember the way you set about destroying my office."

Harry blushed slightly at the memory. "Yes, sir. I apologize."

"No need, Harry. After all, I hardly need possessions anymore. I want to draw your attention, though, to something I said. I pointed out that Voldemort didn't know what he was getting into when he attempted to kill you. I said, if I remember correctly, that instead of killing you, he gave you powers, and a future."

"Yes, sir, I think that's right. In fact…" Harry drifted off as something occurred to him. "Wait a minute…_powers_? As in more than one? I mean, I know I'm a Parselmouth because of him…and I guess I'm an unwilling Legilimens where he's concerned…"

"Exactly, Harry! Exactly my point. It seems to me that you might just have the power to find the Horcruxes after all. You may not consciously know it, but the power's there inside you somewhere."

Harry was beginning to pace at this point. Having the power to find the missing Horcruxes would be a valuable weapon in his fight against Voldemort. But if he had the power, how would he find out? And how would he use it?

Dumbledore seemed to read Harry's thoughts. "Harry, you need to go back to Hogwarts. There is a room on the eleventh floor. Third on the right past the statue of Egbert the Extremely Stupid. I believe he's shown trying to cast a spell while pointing his wand at his own head."

"What's in the room?"

"Something you can use to help you…if you know how to use it. I'm sure you do, though. And that, Harry, is where I must leave you."

"NO!" Harry yelled. "You can't go again, Professor!"

Dumbledore smiled gently. "Harry, I'm already gone. I'm afraid that can't be changed. I have to go and join the rest of me, on the other side. I wonder if I've met Merlin yet. I always wanted to…" His voice trailed off as he faded away.

"Professor! No!" Harry reached for him, but he was gone.

Harry snapped awake at the Burrow, tears glistening in his eyes. Quickly, he got dressed and crossed the room to Ron's bed, shaking him.

"Whuuuu…" Ron moaned, half-awake. "Whuzzit, Harry?"

"Ron, get up. And get Hermione. We've got work to do."

**A/N: This just hit me at work today…the fact that Dumbledore said "powers", plural. It seemed like a good idea for a story. Read and review, please!**


	2. Back to Hogwarts

I admit it took me longer to update than I thought it would…c'est la vie.

Quest for the Missing Horcruxes 

**By Scott Jewett**

**Chapter 2: Back to Hogwarts**

"Harry," Hermione said, eyes wide, "that's the most powerful magic I've ever heard of!"

"You've actually heard of it?" Ron asked. "Have I ever told you that you read too much, Hermione?"

"Six times a day, on average" Harry said. "But that's beside the point. We have to go back to Hogwarts. Right now."

"I think you're insane for wanting to go back to school in the middle of summer holiday, mate" Ron said. "But Voldemort's more important. So what should we do?"

"Knight Bus?" Hermione suggested. "I've got enough money for the three of us to get to Hogsmeade, I think."

"This can't wait, Hermione. I have to go now. I'm Apparating." And before either of them could protest, Harry concentrated and disappeared, reappearing just outside Zonko's Joke Shop in Hogsmeade.

"I wish I hadn't done that" he thought to himself as he ran up the street towards Hogwarts, "but this is way too important to waste time. And I can't have too many people knowing what we're up to." As quickly as he could, he made his way to Hogwarts, completely forgetting that during the summer, he probably wouldn't be able to get inside. He nearly ran into the front doors before he stopped himself, in fact.

Harry pounded on the doors, yelling for help. After a while, the doors opened, much to his surprise. Professor Minerva McGonagall eyed him with suspicion.

"Mr. Potter, what are you doing here? It is summer holiday, you know."

"I need to get inside, Professor. It's important." And Harry explained his entire dream to her as her eyes got wide.

"Yes…of course, Potter. Come in." She barely had time to get out of the way before Harry came barreling in, flying up the stairs. He raced up to the eleventh floor, barely stopping to contemplate a statue of a man who was indeed pointing a wand at his own head before he yanked the third door on the right open.

The room was well lit. Tapestries of quiet nature scenes (with the occasional animal lumbering along) lined the walls. And in the middle of the room stood an object that was quite familiar to Harry Potter.

"The Mirror of Erised…" he thought to himself as he approached it. "So if I want more than anything to be able to find the Horcruxes, I should be able to." He went and stood in front of the mirror. Nothing happened.

Nothing continued to happen for a few minutes.

"What's wrong?" Harry thought. "I need to know how to find Voldemort's last few Horcruxes. That's what I want more than anything else." He kept staring at his reflection. Suddenly, it disappeared. A worn-looking piece of parchment floated into view, with a single word written on it. Harry read it, barely realizing he was speaking out loud.

"I don't get it…_Horcruxia_?" Everything went dark. Harry tried to pull out his wand, but couldn't. He was on the verge of panic when something floated into view. It was…a cauldron. And a brick wall.

"_Finite Incatatem_!" Harry barely realized the words were coming from his mouth before the vision disappeared. He sat down, trying to make sense of what had happened.

"I'm fairly sure those weren't Horcruxes…although they seemed familiar" he said to himself. "I wonder…_Horcruxia_!"

The vision floated in again. A cauldron, a brick wall…and now a wand.

"_Finite Incantatem_!" Harry didn't need any more. He knew what he had to do.

**A/N: This was oddly hard to write, but I got through it. I'm sure most of you know where the Horcrux is…the hard part will be coming up with three more locations. Read and Review!**


	3. Finding the First

Nobody seems to like this story, and yet I press on. I mean, seriously. Zero reviews? Is it really that bad?

Quest for the Missing Horcruxes 

**Chapter 3: Finding the First**

Harry pelted out of the room so fast he didn't look where he was going, and subsequently ran into Ron, who bounced off the statue of Egbert in considerable pain.

"Ow! Watch it, mate!"

Harry couldn't help but laugh for a second, as Ron rubbed the bruise on his arm. Hermione came running up the stairs, puffing slightly.

"You could…have waited…" she gasped.

"I'm sorry, Hermione. But I think I know what to do now." Quickly, he outlined what had happened to his two friends. Ron looked mildly confused.

"Harry, how would there be a spell that could allow you to see where the Horcruxes are? Seems a bit odd that Voldemort's trying to kill you would make that happen."

"I don't think that's it, Ron" Hermione said. "Imagine if Voldemort was hit with a powerful Memory Charm, and forgot about his Horcruxes. He'd probably keep that spell written down on a piece of parchment-"

"Like the one I saw!" Harry said. "And then, he could be looking through his pockets, and find it, and perform it out of curiosity, and remember!"

"But I thought that Voldemort thought that he alone knew about his Horcruxes?" Ron wondered.

"Simple" Harry said. "Voldemort gets hit with a Memory Charm intended to erase his memory of something else. Knowledge of his Horcruxes could just be incidental damage."

"Or," Hermione added, "this could be a more recent spell. It's possible that Voldemort knows about R.A.B. and had him or her killed."

Hermione's last words seemed to echo in Harry's brain. Images and voices started coming together in his head. The note inside the fake Horcrux, reading "I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can." A conversation he had had with Sirius. "_No, he was murdered by Voldemort. Or rather, on Voldemort's orders._" A glimpse of the family tree hanging at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, with a date of death nearly seventeen years ago…

"…so since then, he could have made a spell to keep track of them…"

"Regulus!" Harry exclaimed. Hermione stopped in the middle of her explanation.

"Regulus, Harry?"

"Yes! It all fits! Sirius had a younger brother who joined the Death Eaters. Voldemort killed him right around the time I was born. And I'll bet you anything his middle name began with an A! R.A.B.! Regulus A. Black!" Hermione and Ron went wide-eyed.

"Do you really think so, Harry?" Ron asked. "I mean, how would even a Death Eater know about the Horcruxes?"

"And if he did," Hermione added, "why would he have tried to destroy them?"

"Who cares?" Harry said. "Maybe he had a change of heart, I don't know. The point is, we know who R.A.B. is!"

"But we don't know if he succeeded" Hermione said. "Voldemort may have gotten to him before he could destroy the necklace."

"Not to mention the fact that it was Slytherin's necklace" Ron added. "Probably really powerful and well-protected."

"Look, I know I can't just take it on faith that the real Horcrux is destroyed" Harry said. "But if it's not, I'll be able to find it with this spell, right?" Ron and Hermione considered.

"Fair enough, mate," Ron said at last. "So. Where to?"

Harry smiled. "The vision I had was of a cauldron, a brick wall, and a wand. Sound familiar?"

Judging by the look on Ron's face, no. Hermione, however, seemed to get it immediately.

"Oh, Harry…are you sure?"

"About what?" Ron said, bewildered.

"I'm sure" Harry said, ignoring Ron. "Think about it. It would have been Voldemort's first glimpse of the magical world, right? And all the ambient magic surrounding the place makes it ideal to hide a Horcrux."

"Where?" Ron asked.

"I don't know" Hermione said. "A cauldron's not much to go on, is it?"

"A cauldron and a brick wall, and a wand? Where else would it be, Hermione?"

"WHERE IS IT?" Ron nearly bellowed. Harry winced.

"Diagon Alley, Ron. Somewhere around the entrance." Ron thought.

"Oh yeah…the Leaky Cauldron, and the brick wall in back…Yeah, it makes sense!"

"I still don't know…" Hermione said.

"Can you think of anywhere else that would make sense?" Harry asked.

"Harry, it could be any wizard's house that's made of brick and has a cauldron in it!" she replied.

"No, listen! The Horcruxes are in places that are significant to Voldemort…usually. The diary that Lucius Malfoy slipped to Ginny in our second year was one. The one Dumbledore destroyed was in the remains of a house that belonged to Voldemort's mother's family. And the one we thought was real was concealed in a cliff side where he went on holiday as a child at the orphanage! The entrance to Diagon Alley is really our best shot, Hermione." Hermione didn't look convinced.

"Well, ok…but maybe we should do some research in the library first? On how to break powerful spells and enchantments? I don't want a hand like Dumbledore's."

A slight pang of emotion went through Harry at the mention of Dumbledore's name, but he fought it for the time being.

"First of all," Ron spoke up, "we are NOT going to the Hogwarts library during our summer holidays. And secondly, we don't have time for this, Hermione. For all we know, Voldemort's latest effort to make himself immortal is getting to his Horcruxes and hiding them again so that only he knows where they are."

Harry nearly cried at the thought of Ron, his best friend, saying exactly what he knew he would. He really did know the two of them like the back of his hand…his left, unscarred hand, anyway.

"Even if he did-" Hermione began, but Harry cut her off.

"I'd know how to find them. Let's just go, before Ron turns out to be right." Ron and Hermione nodded agreement.

The trio made their way out of Hogwarts quickly, after a hurried explanation and goodbye to Professor McGonagall. Once off the school grounds, they all concentrated hard, and Disapparated.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione reappeared on top of a building in London, just across the street from the Leaky Cauldron.

"How are we supposed to get down?" Ron asked.

"Fire escape" Harry replied. "Good idea on aiming for up here, Hermione. I didn't much fancy popping into view in front of Muggles on the street." Hermione smiled as the three of them made their way down the side of the building, into the alleyway, and across the street to the Leaky Cauldron. Tom, the toothless old bartender, smiled as they entered the door.

"Mr. Potter, sir!" The atmosphere in the pub brightened almost immediately at the mention of Harry's name. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry spotted Doris Crockford coming his way.

"Can't talk, Tom. Business to attend to." And he quickly grabbed his friends and nearly sprinted out the back door.

The three of them stood in the back yard of the Cauldron. The familiar brick wall stood there in front of them.

"Do you reckon the Horcrux is inside the wall?" Ron said.

"It seems unlikely" Hermione replied. "After all, there's a lot of magic used to hide Diagon Alley. Could Voldemort really have penetrated it?"

Harry was barely listening. His eyes were focused on the trash bins next to the door of the Leaky Cauldron. While one was filled to overflowing, the other was quite empty.

Tom chose that moment to come out of the back door, wiping his hands on a rag. Ron and Hermione quickly stopped their conversation.

"Are you quite sure you wouldn't like a drink, Mr. Potter?" Tom asked.

"Er, not right now." Harry answered. "Tom, shouldn't you empty this trash bin?" And he pointed to the overflowing one.

Tom smiled. "Oh, I don't need to, Mr. Potter. You see, that empty one's charmed so that whatever goes into it disappears! Quite a clever spell…I just wish I knew who had done it." Harry's eyes widened, as did Ron's and Hermione's.

"Why don't you just use that one?" Ron asked. "Inside, even?"

"Well, that's the funny thing" Tom said. "I didn't put that trash bin there. It just sort of showed up on its own, maybe eighteen or so years so. Right after You-Know-Who killed the Bones family, as I recall…that was a shame. Edgar Bones was a great customer of mine…if a little generous with the firewhisky…" He completely missed the expression that passed between the other three.

"Tom" Harry said, digging in his pockets, "what would it take to buy a round for the entire pub right now?"

"The entire pub, Mr. Potter?" Tom considered. "Let's see…it's not that full…mostly light drinkers…I'd say, about twenty Galleons, sixteen Sickles, twenty-three Knuts." Ron and Hermione were shocked at the price, but Harry barely heard. He pulled thirty Galleons from his pockets.

"Consider it done. Tell them it's compliments of Harry Potter, but I'm very busy in Diagon Alley, so they can thank me another time. And keep the change." A large smile spread on Tom's face.

"Thank you, Mr. Potter! Thank you very much indeed!" He ran happily back into the pub. Harry quickly drew his wand and locked the door.

"It's a Horcrux!" Ron and Hermione exclaimed behind him.

"I know!" Harry replied. "But what do we do? Is it Transfigured or something? Can we destroy it like this, or does it have an Indestructible Charm? And what's going to happen when we try?"

"More importantly, Harry," Ron asked, "where did you get those thirty Galleons?" Harry and Hermione looked at him.

"Just wondering" he said.

"Let me try something" Hermione said. She drew her wand and waved it over the trash bin, muttering a few words. The trash bin turned transparent. They could see through it to the wall of the Leaky Cauldron behind it; and there, inside, was a cup.

"Is that…?" Ron said.

"It's Hufflepuff's cup!" Harry said. He recognized it from his trip through the Pensieve the previous year. "How do we get to it?"

"I don't know, Harry" Hermione said. "All this spell does is make the bin transparent, and show the magic being used to hide it." She gestured with her free hand to the top of the bin, which looked like it now had a swirling black mass of energy inside it.

"So we can't get through the sides, I imagine," Harry said, "and whatever's protecting the top makes things disappear."

"Not disappear, Harry. It destroys them." Hermione proved the point, conjuring up a twig from midair and dipping half of it into the trash bin. It disappeared as Harry watched, and when she pulled it back, it was half its former size.

"We have to get past THAT?" Ron said. "Blimey, this is going to be fun."

"Well, I'd imagine it isn't that deep" Hermione said, "because then the cup would be destroyed. This is very powerful magic."

"I wonder…"Harry trailed off. He waved his wand in the air, catching a golden goblet he had conjured.

"You're not thinking of drinking it!" Hermione said, shocked.

"It worked for the last one…sort of" Harry said. He dipped part of the goblet into the swirling black mass, and pulled up…a goblet with a part missing.

"Right, that's out" he said, casting the rest aside.

"Maybe we can siphon it out" Hermione said. Before Harry could react, she pointed her wand at the swirling black mass.

Harry and Ron looked on in shock as the mass of black magic rose up, out of the bin, and rolled over Hermione. She gasped as it swallowed her.

"HERMIONE!" Ron and Harry yelled together. They pulled their wands, and were about to advance on her, when suddenly the mass pulled back into the bin. Hermione stood there, looking quite scared.

"Hermione?" Harry asked, reaching for her.

"No," she whispered, backing away. Harry was confused.

"Hermione, it's us. Whatever you're seeing, it isn't real."

"No" she repeated, backing away. "You're wrong…it's not true…I didn't…"

"What?" Ron said from next to Harry. "What did she say?"

"I don't think she can hear us" Harry said. "She might be seeing something we're not."

Hermione sat on the ground, her knees pulled up to her chin, shaking back and forth. "Nooooo…please go away, please…I'm not a failure…"

"What?" Ron said again. "Who'd be telling her she's a failure?"

"Professor McGonagall" Harry said with a sudden burst of inspiration. "Remember how the boggart became her in Hermione's third year Defense exam?"

"So that black stuff is like…a liquid boggart?"

"Maybe. I think it's more powerful than that, though. She can't even see or hear us."  
"Stop…please…" Hermione moaned. "Mum…Dad…I'm sorry…"

"Harry," Ron said, "I don't think it's just McGonagall she's seeing."

"I think you're right" Harry said, as Hermione started to rock back and forth, crying. "We have to help her!" And before Ron could object, he took Hermione's hand.

The world went dark. Harry saw, as if from a distance, Hermione, in the same position as before, but with a small group of people in front of her.

"You failed your N.E.W.T.s, you stupid little fool!" McGonagall was saying as Harry approached.

"I can't believe we raised such an idiot of a daughter" said a woman Harry recognized as Hermione's mother.

"I'm not an idiot" Hermione moaned quietly.

"Can't even do simple spells, can you?" Hermione's father said.

"Hermione!" Harry exclaimed. She looked up, tears in her eyes.

"Harry? Is that you?"

"It's me, Hermione. This isn't real. It's the spell Voldemort used to protect his Horcrux! It's your biggest fear! The fear of failure!"

"Never get a good job now, will you?" Hermione's mother said. "Not now that you've failed everything!"

"Nooooo!" Hermione said. "Harry…I know it's not real…but I can't fight it…"

"Then I will!" Harry said. He turned to the other three. "Do you know who you're talking to? This is Hermione Granger! She's top of our year at Hogwarts!"

It had no effect on them. Harry kept trying.

"She brewed the Polyjuice Potion PERECTLY at the age of twelve!"

The figures shimmered slightly. Hermione looked up, hopeful.

"That's right…I did…"

"She could produce a Patronus at fifteen!" Harry continued, getting worked up. "And she got twelve O.W.L.s., and produced a jinx so powerful that Marietta Edgecombe still has to keep her face covered nearly two years later! A jinx that Madam Pomfrey, St. Mungo's, AND the Ministry of Magic couldn't undo!"

"Yes!" Hermione said, standing up. The figures actually shrunk.

"And she's been there," Harry said, feeling the end coming, "for me, every time I've needed her. She's the best friend I could ever have, she's helped me escape Voldemort on countless occasions, and all while achieving PERFECT GRADES EVERY YEAR!"

"YES!" Hermione screamed as she stalked toward the quivering figures of McGonagall and her parents, which were shrinking. "AND I GOT THREE HUNDRED AND TWELVE PERCENT ON AN EXAM FOR A CLASS I DON'T EVEN TAKE ANYMORE! I'M NO FAILURE…YOUR SPELL IS, TOM!"

The figures and the blackness exploded around the two of them. Hermione sunk to her knees again.

"It was so real" she whispered.

"It's gone, Hermione, whatever it was" Ron said, having missed out on the entire thing. "And is it me, or does the level of this magic stuff seem lower?"

Harry and Hermione looked. Ron was right. It did seem lower.

"What now?" Ron asked. Harry and Hermione looked at each other.

"You next, Ron. Try to siphon it out. You'll end up facing your worst fears…but we'll be with you."

Ron gulped, but nodded. He pulled out his wand and waved it. The black mass rose up again to engulf him, but this time Harry and Hermione grabbed his hands. The world went dark again.

Harry looked around. Sure enough, his suspicions were proven true: an army of acromantulas were coming towards them. Ron whimpered.

"It had to be spiders, didn't it?" he said. Harry and Hermione whipped out their wands.

"_Diffindo_!" Hermione shouted. A blast of light from her wand neatly severed the legs of three spiders.

"_Impedimenta_!" Harry yelled. Six more spiders froze in their tracks.

"Ron, help us!" Hermione said.

But Ron couldn't. He seemed frozen to the spot. The acromantulas got closer and closer, despite Harry and Hermione's best efforts to fight them off.

"Ron, do something!" Harry shouted at his immobilized friend. Ron still wouldn't move.

"Honestly!" Hermione said. "Ron, look!"

Ron turned his head as Hermione yelled, "_Reducio_!" One of the acromantulas shrunk down to the size of a pea. Hermione stepped on it and crushed it.

"Get the idea?" She said to Ron.

Ron paused for a second. His face seemed to brighten slightly as he raised his wand.

"_REDUCIO_!" he yelled.

A large blast of light shot from his wand in a wide semicircle. Every spider within it shrunk down, getting smaller and smaller, shrinking away to the size of tiny pebbles. Ron whipped his wand around in a circle (Harry and Hermione ducked) and every acromantula wound up being the size of a postage stamp or smaller.

Ron jumped for joy on the spiders as they scuttled around. "Take THAT, Voldemort! And that! And that, and that, and THAT!"

With a rush of wind, the spell lifted again. Ron sagged against the wall as Harry and Hermione checked the bin. A glint of gold peeked above the swirling mass of magic, but not enough to grasp.

"I guess it's your turn, Harry" Hermione said.

"Think it'll be an army of dementors?" he replied. "I'm pretty sure I can handle that."

"If you're that sure about it, Harry," Ron said from the wall as he got up, "I don't think so. But we'll be there."

Harry smiled as he waved his wand. The blackness rose up and swallowed him as Ron and Hermione grabbed his hands.

In the darkness, Harry couldn't see anything for a few seconds. Then he appeared. Lord Voldemort, right in front of him, his wand raised.

Harry felt powerless. His wand seemed to lay limply in his hand. An evil smile spread across Voldemort's face as he raised his wand.

"NO!" Hermione screamed as if from far off.

"HARRY!" Ron yelled at the same time, seemingly from the opposite direction.

Other voices added to the chorus. Harry saw what seemed to be everyone he knew. The Weasley family. The Order of the Phoenix. The Hogwarts professors. Nearly all of Gryffindor House. And they were all standing in front of him. Suddenly he knew what was going to happen. Time seemed to stand still.

"They're going to die" He said to himself. "They're all going to die to protect me. They're all going to die because of me. I'm responsible for everyone's death." The shock of what he said was so great that he almost couldn't breathe. His wand dropped to the ground, followed by him on his knees. He put his face in his hands and cried softly.

"We're not going to die, Harry." A soft voice spoke beside him.

Harry turned in shock to see Hermione right beside him. Ron was on his other side. He looked to the crowd and saw them standing there as well.

"How…?"

"This is your biggest fear, Harry" Ron said. "It's that Voldemort's going to kill everyone you know and love, and it'll be your fault. But you're wrong, mate."

"No" Harry said. "It's all me…I put you all in danger…"

"We're all in danger of him already" Hermione said. "Because we fight against him, just like you do."

"We're on your side, Harry" Ron said. "We'll fight him to the death if we need to, because it's right. And because we believe you're right. It's not your fault."

"But if you die…" Harry croaked.

"Then we die." Hermione said. "Because we failed to fight him. Not because you failed us. We choose to fight with you, Harry…you don't have to protect us."

"After all," Ron added, "it's not like we still need our nappies changed. We're not babies." He smiled, as did Hermione. Harry nodded slowly and got up. He thrust his way through the crowd of his friends and allies, pushing and shoving his way to the front, and raised his wand as time seemed to speed up again.

"_AVADA KEDAVRA_!" he shouted.

Harry had never performed the Killing Curse before, and he was unprepared for the effect. He felt anger. Overpowering, hot anger, blazing from his shoulder to his elbow, elbow to hand, hand to wand. The blazing fire shot out of the end of his wand in a green jet of light, blasting its way through Voldemort's body and sending him flying.

Harry collapsed as the magic lifted, shaking slightly. He barely registered Ron lifting the Horcrux out of the now empty trash bin, saying "Well, I guess Tom'll be emptying this thing after all now", and Hermione asking, "Harry?" before he lost unconsciousness.

**A/N: I'm pretty sure that's the longest chapter of anything I've ever written. I hope it satisfies someone to the point of actually reviewing it. Read and Review!**


	4. Cracking the Cup

There's nothing quite like getting your first reviews on a new story. Even if it's three chapters in.

Quest for the Missing Horcruxes 

**Chapter 4: Cracking the Cup**

Harry awoke in a very familiar place: the hospital wing of Hogwarts. As he fumbled for his glasses, he barely had time to wonder why he wasn't in St. Mungo's before Ron snapped out of his slumber next to the bed.

"Finally, you're awake." He grinned. "Been out for nearly a day, mate."

"Whuhappened?" Harry asked groggily.

"Looks like facing your greatest fear took quite a bit out of you," Ron said. "We brought you back here. Thought showing up in St. Mungo's might cause a little bit of a privacy problem."

"Fair enough" Harry said. "Where's Hermione?"

"She's been working on that cup almost non-stop in McGonagall's office since we got back" Ron said. "I've barely been able to feed her. Had to summon a house-elf in front of her just to snap her out of it an hour ago. Then, of course, I spent fifty minutes being yelled at." Harry grinned.

"Am I allowed to get up?"

"Madam Pomfrey said you could go as soon as you were awake. Personally, I think she'll be glad to be shut of you. This is supposed to be a vacation for her too, you know." The two laughed as Harry got up.

"So it's not going well?" he asked as they made their way to Professor McGonagall's office.

"Horribly" Ron replied. "I've never seen her have this much trouble with anything, except flying. She spent hours in the library (alone, of course) and dragged I don't even know how many books back to the office. She's tried Charms, Transfiguring, different potions, Vanishing, Conjuring…it's starting to look hopeless, mate."

"Hopeless?" Harry said. "It's only been a day. It's going to be a while, I imagine. The wizard who created Felix Felicis probably wasn't happy to know that it took six months to make."

"True" Ron said, "but we haven't got six months here." Harry nodded as they entered the office. Hermione sat behind the desk, her hair even wilder than usual, and large circles under her eyes. A cauldron sat on one side of the desk, steaming slightly, and Hufflepuff's cup sat in the middle, shining golden and looking like nothing had happened to it. Hermione raised her head and smiled weakly as Harry and Ron walked in.

"You're back…" she said quietly.

"Are you all right, Hermione?" Harry asked anxiously. She waved her hand vaguely.

"Oh, you know…a day without sleep, trying to break some of the most powerful spells in the world…nothing major" she said airily.

"And nothing's worked?" Harry asked.

"Nothing!" Hermione shrieked. "I've tried everything I could think of, and everything that looked like it might work when I read it!" She seemed to be on the verge of tears. Harry thought hard.

"What do we know about Helga Hufflepuff?"

"Why?"

"Even Voldemort has weaknesses" Harry said. "There must be something we can use here. I know Hufflepuff was one of the most powerful witches of her age, but that doesn't mean she wasn't even afraid of anything!"

"Hang on…" Hermione said, thinking hard. "That seems familiar…what was it she was afraid of? I wonder…" She grabbed a book and started reading fast. Ron rolled his eyes at Harry, who grinned.

"Snakes!" Hermione exclaimed triumphantly a few minutes later, slamming the book down. "Helga Hufflepuff was deathly afraid of snakes!"

"So?" Ron said. "How does that help us?"

"Well, this is her cup, and I think badgers are afraid of snakes too…Maybe that's the key to it!" With a wave of her wand, Hermione conjured a snake on the desk that hissed at the badger engraved on Hufflepuff's cup. To everyone's surprise, the badger squealed and ran around to the other side of the cup. Harry, Ron, and Hermione watched, dumbfounded, as the snake began chasing the badger around the cup.

"I don't think anyone expected that" Ron said, as the chase continued.

"Can we use this to our advantage?" Harry asked.

"It depends," said Hermione, as the badger squealed in terror, "on whether or not this spell is useful. I can't see it just being something Hufflepuff put on here for fun…especially since it isn't, and she's afraid of snakes. It seems," she continued, as the badger attempted to hide inside the cup, "that the badger is confined to the outside of the cup. Maybe it's magically charmed to protect the cup from harm somehow."

"And its only vulnerability," Harry added, "would be snakes, right?"

"Seems rather easy" Ron said. "I mean, how many people knew Hufflepuff was afraid of snakes?""

"Only the people who've checked this book out from the Restricted Section" Hermione said. "For example," and she flipped to the back of the book and showed them the small list of names, including one Tom Riddle.

"Somehow, I'm not surprised" Harry said. "So, how do we use the snake to destroy the cup?" Ron and Hermione looked at him in shock.

"Destroy it?" Ron said. "Harry, this is a priceless magical artifact!"

"Yes," Harry said, "and the most evil wizard of all time put part of his soul in it so he could never be killed. I don't think we can just remove that piece of his soul, Ron. We have to destroy the cup."

"I don't know, Harry" Hermione said. "I mean, it belonged to a _founder_ of Hogwarts. We should be doing all we can to save the cup."

"Hermione, nothing else is working. We don't have a choice here. So how do we use the snake?" Hermioned sighed in exasperation and thought hard.

"Okay…Hufflepuff was afraid of snakes…and this is her cup. Maybe it absorbed her magical essence, somehow, and that's why the badger is afraid too. Perhaps they're magically linked together…."

A loud squeal caught their attention. They turned back to the cup to see that the badger had been cornered by the snake, who took advantage of the opportunity to strike. Harry, who had expected to see a useless clashing of fang on metal, was shocked to see the snake's fangs penetrating the badger's body. He was further shocked by what happened next. From the point of contact, small black lines started to form. They spread out through the cup, crossing, connecting, somehow flowing through the golden surface.

"Is that…the snake's poison, or something?" Ron asked.

"I don't know" Hermione said. "But I think it's working…look!" The black lines had spread over the entire cup. They seemed to pulse for a second before a loud cracking noise filled the room. Harry, Ron, and Hermione watched in surprise as Helga Hufflepuff's ancient golden cup fell to pieces on the desk, apparently destroyed by the venom of the snake.

Out of the wreckage of Hufflepuff's cup, something floated. It seemed to be a small dark black ball, twisting and writhing in midair like it was full of snakes.

"Voldemort's soul" Hermione whispered. "Or at least, a part of it. Look how dark and evil it looks…"

But before long, it vanished. The three teens looked at each other.

"Well, now we know what a soul looks like" Ron said. "Or part of an evil one, anyway. And we know we're on the right track…I doubt Hufflepuff herself would have put anything that looked like that in her cup."

"You're right" Harry added. "And according to what Dumbledore told me, that leaves…I destroyed the diary, he destroyed the ring, we just destroyed the cup…that leaves the last part of the soul in Voldemort's body, his pet snake, something of Ravenclaw's or Gryffindor's, and Slytherin's locket, which may be destroyed or not."

"You'll know, won't you?" Ron asked. "What with your handy Horcrux-hunting spell?"

"Well," Harry said, "I'll have to find out. _Horcruxia_!" And just like before, the world went dark. As Harry attempted to adjust his eyes, something came into focus. It looked like…but no, it couldn't be…

Ron and Hermione's faces came back into view.

"Well, Harry?" Hermione asked, anxious. "What did you see?"

Harry was a bit surprised at what he had seen and didn't immediately hear her.

"Harry?"

"Hogwarts" Harry whispered.

"What, Harry?" Ron asked.

"I saw…Hogwarts." Harry said. Ron and Hermione looked at each other.

"It's…here, somewhere?" Hermione said, worried.

"It looks like it" Harry answered. There was silence for a minute.

"So all we have to do," Ron said, trying to inject a note of humor into the proceedings, "is search every centimeter of this school for the next Horcrux, despite not knowing what we're looking for, where it might be, or what spells might be protecting it."

Not surprisingly, Harry and Hermione didn't laugh.

**A/N: On to chapter 5. Don't worry, the next Horcrux will be surprisingly easy for them to find. Read and Review!**


	5. The Second Horcrux

I haven't had much time to write lately, so I'm cramming as much work as I can into what few hours I have today. I literally finished writing chapter 4 30 seconds ago.

And of course, boys and girls, I don't own anything that you recognize. Although I do own my own personal ideas on where the Horcruxes are and how to destroy them. After all, I came up with them.

Quest for the Missing Horcruxes 

**By Scott Jewett**

**Chapter 5: The Second Horcrux**

"If all I saw was Hogwarts," Harry said, "then it must be here. The question is, where?"

"It's hard to say, Harry" Hermione said. "Think about it. The only Horcrux left that Voldemort doesn't have possession of for sure is something that belonged to Ravenclaw or Gryffindor. Dumbledore himself told you that he didn't know how many artifacts of Ravenclaw's still exist. And the only thing left of Gryffindor's is a sword that was inside the Sorting Hat until you pulled it out five years ago. I think it's safe to say that we're looking for a Ravenclaw artifact."

"Would Dumbledore have known if any of Rowena Ravenclaw's old things were here at Hogwarts?" Ron asked.

"I expect so, being headmaster" Hermione replied. "But if he made a list of any kind, it would probably be in his office, and how do we get in there?"

"Maybe we need to do some research in the library," Harry suggested, ignoring the look of horror on Ron's face, "or maybe I need to try the spell again. After all, it took me two tries to find the first Horcrux. Maybe this second try will be more detailed." And before they could argue against it, Harry cried "_Horcruxia_" again.

Once again, the world went dark. Harry saw Hogwarts again…then two more things floated into view. A familiar looking gargoyle…and a very familiar looking brass door knocker…

"Dumbledore's office!" he exclaimed as he came out of it.

"What?" Ron and Hermione said together.

"It has to be in Dumbledore's office. I just saw the gargoyle, and the knocker on his door. It has to be in there!"

"But how do we get in?" Ron wondered. No one paid attention.

"But, Harry," Hermione said, "it's not possible. If something of Ravenclaw's was in Dumbledore's office, wouldn't he have tried to destroy it already?"

"Maybe he didn't know" Harry said. Voldemort could have hidden it somewhere, or Transfigured it, or…something…hang on a minute…" Harry was remembering something else. Something he had heard a few years before. A song, oddly enough…

"That's it," he said. "Let's go. I know what the Horcrux is." He dashed out of McGonagall's office so fast that Ron and Hermione could barely keep up.

"Harry!" Hermione shouted as they ran. "How do you know what it is? Did you see it while you were in Dumbledore's office?"

"Yeah!" Harry replied, flying towards the staff room. "And you've seen it too! So has Ron! So has every student who passed through the school!" He skidded to a halt as Professor McGonagall came out of the staff room.

"Well, Potter, you seem to be alive and well" she said, but Harry interrupted her.

"Professor, it's the Hat. The Sorting Hat is a Horcrux."

Not surprisingly, Professor McGonagall wasn't expecting that at all.

"The…the Sorting Hat, Potter?"

"Yes" Harry said, breathing heavily and holding his side. "I just did the spell again. It showed me that there's a Horcrux in Dumbledore's…I'm sorry, ma'am…your office. And besides Gryffindor's sword, it's the only relic of Ravenclaw's or Gryffindor's in there."

"Harry," Ron asked from behind him, "how can you be sure?"

"Exactly!" McGonagall said. "You need to be very sure before I can let you do anything with that Hat, much less let you into my office!"

"…he whipped me off his head…" Hermione whispered behind Harry. McGonagall looked around him.

"What was that, Miss Granger?" Hermione looked up, her eyes bright.

"'Twas Gryffindor who found the way, He whipped me off his head, the founders put some brains in me so I could choose instead!' It was part of the Sorting Hat's song in our fourth year, Professor! The Sorting Hat is Godric Gryffindor's hat! And of course it's in the headmaster's office, just like Harry saw! The Sorting Hat must be the next Horcrux!"

"I don't know…" McGonagall said. "Isn't it possible that it's the sword?"

"It's unlikely," Harry said. "Even if Voldemort knew about the sword, he couldn't have pulled it out of the hat. Dumbledore told me that only a true Gryffindor could have done that."

"And besides," Ron added, "Voldemort could have learned about the hat's history much easier than an old sword, just by paying attention to its' song. There must have been some variation on what it sang to us sometime in the past." McGonagall thought for a minute.

"I must be out of my mind" she sighed. "The three of you can go up to the headmaster's office…and no it's not mine, that decision hasn't been made yet…and TALK to the Hat. Don't start doing any spells on it unless you're sure of it. The password is 'Sugar Quill'." The three of them didn't need another word. They practically flew up to Dumbledore's old office. The gargoyle leapt aside as they mentioned Sugar Quills, and they dashed up the stairs and inside.

Harry felt a pang in his stomach as they entered Dumbledore's office. Except for the new portrait of him over the desk, nothing had changed yet. He could still remember being in this room only months before, ready to join Dumbledore in a journey to find the necklace that contained a fragment of Voldemort's soul…and the way he'd felt when he came back to this very room not long after, to find that Dumbledore's picture had joined the ranks of previous headmasters and headmistresses…

"The Hat!" Hermione exclaimed. Sure enough, the Sorting Hat was resting in its usual place on its shelf. The three approached it cautiously.

"How do we do this?" Ron wondered. "What kind of defensive spells are there on it, d'you reckon?"

"If I had to guess" Hermione said, "I'd actually say none. I can't imagine Voldemort putting a spell on the Hat that kept anyone from putting it on…and of course he didn't. I suppose it could be spelled to not say anything about Horcruxes…but Voldemort thinks he's the only one who knows about what he did to the Hat, so maybe he didn't waste time with a spell like that."

"We need to take action," Harry said, snapping out of his reverie. He strode up to the shelf. "Hat!"

The Sorting Hat opened its eyes about as well as a hat with no eyes can. "Potter? You again? Weren't you in here just a month or so ago, when school let out? And why aren't you on holiday?"

"Important business. Business that you're involved in, actually. How far back would you say you remember?"

The Hat gave a very hat-like smirk. "Potter, I remember everything I've seen and heard since the founders made me magic! I remember Alice McAdams…the only person in the history of this school who actually begged to be a Hufflepuff! Seems her family told her they were directly descended. Well, I didn't tell her the truth…she was really a distantly descended Ravenclaw. I'm sure she wouldn't have believed a silly hat over her entire family. Turned out to be the smartest Hufflepuff ever. Highest marks that House ever saw. That was seven hundred and fifty-four years ago. And did you know that Slytherin and Hufflepuff had an illicit affair? Their daughter Gwendolyn was the first student at Hogwarts. Took me so long to place her, I nearly blew a seam."

"As fascinating as the private lives of the founders are" Harry interrupted, "I need to know about Tom Riddle." The Hat looked shocked, somehow.

"Riddle! Oh, I remember him. I sensed Slytherin in him before I even touched his head! One of the easiest placements I ever had…besides that Malfoy boy six years ago. Why do you ask, Potter?"

"I have reason to believe" Harry said, "that he has split his soul into seven pieces, so he can never die. And that six of those pieces were used to make Horcruxes."

"Ah, yes, Horcruxes" the Hat said. "I believe I once heard Headmaster Dippet discussing them with Riddle. Something about catching him in the Restricted Section without a teacher's note."

"What?" Hermione exclaimed, shocked. "How did he ever find a book that mentioned them? I looked everywhere!"

"Calm down, Hermione" Ron said. "It's possible that Professor Dippet had the book removed, if there ever was one."

"Exactly!" the Hat said. "But if you ask me, I think Riddle had already gotten what he needed from it. He didn't seem to pay much attention to Dippet lecturing him."

"So Riddle already knew about Horcruxes" Harry said. "And he was in this room, with Professor Dippet and you."

"That's right" the Hat replied. "And then…" The Hat trailed off. It seemed to be thinking.

"Yes?" Harry asked.

"You know, Potter," the Hat said, "it's surprising, but I don't seem to remember exactly what happened next. There was a flash of light of some kind, and Headmaster Dippet stopped talking. Then…he turned and pulled his wand on…me!" Harry's eyes went wide, as did Ron's and Hermione's.

"And then?" Harry pressed.

"Another flash of light…but then, I can't remember until what seems like much later. Riddle was gone, and so was Professor Dippet." There were a few moments of silence, broken by Ron.

"Riddle must have…he must have Imperiused Dippet!"

"And made him cast the spell!" Hermione added. "Maybe only the headmaster can perform spells on the Sorting Hat, for whatever reason. A safeguard built in by the founders, maybe."

"And the spell" Harry said, "made the Hat a Horcrux, but the power of it messed with the Hat's memory. Or there was an extra spell mixed in. Dumbledore told me that it's dangerous to put part of your soul into something that can think for itself. Riddle might have come up with a way around that." He turned back to the Hat. "Professor Dippet made you a Horcrux, didn't he?"

No one was really prepared for what happened next. The Hat went completely rigid for a moment, and then its mouth opened again.

"_AVADA_-"

But Harry, who knew that spell as well as he knew his own name, and Ron, who was a talented Quidditch player with great reflexes, had both grabbed Hermione and forced her to the floor as a jet of green light shot over their heads, smashing into a cabinet on the other side of the room. The three of them dived behind Dumbledore's desk for protection as the Hat kept performing the Killing Curse.

"How did he do that?" Hermione wondered. "A magical object performing a spell? And without a wand?"

"I don't want to know how he did it" Ron muttered. "I want it to stop."

"Look" Harry shouted over the sound of many glass things breaking. "Obviously, this is Voldemort's defense mechanism for the hat. We have to stop it somehow." He stopped yelling as the Hat got quiet.

"Do you think it's ok?" Ron asked, peeking over the edge of the desk.

"_AVADA KEDAVRA_!" Ron ducked again as a large blast singed the edge of Dumbledore's desk.

"Well, that's a no" Harry replied. "And I don't think we'll be making it to the door anytime soon."

Hermione hadn't said anything for a minute.

"Are you okay, Hermione?" Harry asked. She looked at him vaguely.

"Think I've got an idea…" Before Harry or Ron could stop her, she shot out from the edge of the desk. The Hat fired Killing Curses at her. One of them, missing low, knocked over a small table that Hermione immediately hid behind.

"Oh, great!" Ron yelled. "Now we're split up AND at the mercy of a homicidal hat! Nice plan!"

Hermione didn't say anything. For her, the world had slowed down. As though in a dream, she felt herself standing, slowly. The Hat saw her, and the rip in its brim that served as a mouth opened. Quicker than she imagined she could, she raised her wand.

"_Bastius Vocalis_!" she yelled.

In a flash, large black threads had formed, stitching their way across the brim of the Hat, closing the rip it used as a mouth. The Hat, not being able to keep from performing the Killing Curse, said it, but mumbled and practically inaudible.

Then it happened. The Hat needed its mouth to expel the Killing Curse from itself, but now its mouth was firmly stitched shut. As Hermione watched, and Harry and Ron dared to look up, the Hat started to swell. It got bigger and bigger, the seams stretching. It swelled to almost the size of a beach ball, its eyes wide in horror. And as Harry, Ron, and Hermione watched, the Hogwarts Sorting Hat disappeared in a huge flash of green light that completely dissolved it. The three of them ducked for cover as the light spread, but the desk and table protected them.

As the flash died down, Harry risked a look at the place where the Hat had been. There it was, another piece of Voldemort's soul. It didn't look like the other one. It was much whiter, although not completely white. There were streaks of black across it.

"He was younger," Hermione said. Harry, startled, turned to look at her. "He had already killed his uncle, so his soul was stained. And of course he had killed someone else to split it again. But he wasn't completely evil…yet. There may have been enough good in him still to save him, even."

"Well, obviously not" Ron replied. "I mean, we've seen the outcome."

"But what if someone had reached out to him, Ron? What if someone had tried being a real friend to him? Would all this have happened? Would we even be having this discussion?"

"We can't ask questions like that, Hermione" Harry said. "We still have work to do. There's at least one more Horcrux out there, maybe two." Hermione rounded on him.

"Yes, I know! The necklace and the snake! Have you thought about how you're going to go after Voldemort's pet snake without being killed, Harry? Cause I have! And I don't see it ending well for you!" She ran from the room, her face in her hands.

"You know" Ron remarked from behind Harry, "I hope she uncovers her hands, cause those stone steps will probably hurt if she doesn't see them." Harry had to fight down his laugh.

"She's right, you know," he said quietly. "It's going to come down to him and me, and I have to kill his snake before that at least. And there might be a whole other Horcrux to worry about."

"Well, why don't you find out?" Ron asked. "Use your handy Horcrux radar you've got in your head." Harry nodded and closed his eyes.

"_Horcruxia_!"

**(A/N: Well, there's another one down. I'd like to think I drew logical conclusions about these two Horcruxes. And I want to thank my reviewers…even if I wasn't nice enough to use their ideas. My bad. Review please!)**


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